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Ravenswood Druid Circle: Eleint 3rd-8th On the 4th of Eleint, a group of Pathfinders comprised of Jura, Rinzler, Alejandra and Kat decided to strike out for the Rheic Sea. They collected the various supplies they needed, and spent some time conversing with Ned about a variety of local myths and ancient legends. The stories told included the tale of Chickcharney, the story of a prince named Torbin who set out to kill an evil necromancer and was never heard from again, a legend of a kracken who lives in the sea, tales of the faerie king, and various stories concerning the ancient war and the creation of the Great Wall. The group set out in the late morning and followed the Lonesome Road into the Great Cedar Forest, setting up camp by a barrow mound. That night, Chickcharney passed uncomfortably close to their camp but ignored them. Everyone was relieved, until he returned several hours later, flailing in a blind rage. The Pathfinders ran away in a panic, and their hasty retreat lead them directly into the camp of the Skull-Takers. Not stopping, the group plowed through the camp, much to the dismay and anger of the goblins; when they emerged from the far side, Chickcharney was no longer following them, but the yells of fear and confusion suggested that the goblins had provided an unwitting distraction. The Pathfinders ran out of the woods and kept moving until they reached the bottom of Sosostriss' Tower, where they spent the rest of the night. On the 5th, the Pathfinders decided to make a short stop at Sosostriss' in order to return the library books that Kat and Ruthea had borrowed. While Rinzler and Alejandra waited in the doorway, Kat and Jura returned the books upstairs. Bored with waiting for Kat, who was loathe to leave the tower so soon, Rinzler began looking and fiddling with Sosostriss' portal. By the time that Kat and Jura returned downstairs, he had activated the device and it was waiting for coordinates to be given. After a short discussion, they tried the phrase "the portal closest to the Rheic Sea", which connected successfully with another portal. Crossing through, they were immedeately greeted with a terrifiying sight: the portal they came through was built from skeletons, and the room they stood in was a sea of blood with walls made of bone. The only exit was sealed with a permanent prismatic wall, and two huge bone golems, their arms replaced with scythes, guarded it. Doing an immedeate about-face, the group returned to Sosostriss'. After short arguement about the next destination, they finally settled on "the Shrine to Nethys", which teleported them within meters of the sunken shrine. From there, they headed west until they reached a river bank. On the far side, miles and miles away, a building could just be barely made out; a combination of flight and a spyglass let them make out a terrible ziggurat made of bones, with room-sized skulls crowning its peak. A powerful aura of evil could be felt eminating from it even at this distance; the Pathfinders quickly attributed the structure to both The Necromancer and the blood-soaked room they had entered a short while ago. Unwilling to approach the ziggurat and looking for an easy fording location, the adventurers followed the river north. Eventually, they came to a junction where the river they were following joined with another river: the River Dawn. From there, they found a spot that looked safe enough, so they set about crossing to the other side. Struggling with the horses, heavy armour and general examples of poor swimming, the Pathfinders eventually managed to cross without any loss of life. On the far side, where the swamps had dried to become deciduous forest, they were met with a magnificent unicorn, who regarded them calmly but with interest. After Alejandra implored it for assistance, it led them into the woods, showing them to the way to an old stone circle with a small altar at its center. When the Pathfinders investigated it, several men in plain robes appeared, introducing themselves as the druids of Ravenswood. They explained the significance of the circle that they currently stood in, as well as the word that would activate it, and gave some information regarding other, similar circles that they knew of. Leading them to the surrounding trees, the Pathfinders were amazed to see that the trees had been formed into houses of sorts; the druids lived here, protecting the circle and nature at large. The group wandered around the small settlement, and were introduced to Terminus, the warforged druid initiate who has a bad habit of mumbling the last words of the men he had executed over the course of his last vocation, and the Arch-Druid, an ineffable being who shifts from animal form to animal form and enjoys giving riddles. On this occasion, he had taken the form of a large barn owl, and gifted to them Fochlucan's Branch after his series of puzzles had been answered. The group learned from the druids that the Bone Ziggurat was indeed an ancient source of evil, but just recently had begun stirring, its aura growing in strength. They also learned that the Dawn River, after flowing through the Ravenswood, crossed through a mountain valley before emptying into the ocean itself. Armed with this knowledge and the decision to acquire a boat, the Pathfinders spent the night with the druids before setting back to Willowdale the next morning. The group spent the 6th and 7th walking back through the Ravenswood, Red Forest, and Great Cedar Forest, following the River Dawn. Although they mostly had a quiet and uneventful trip back, they did discover an abandoned limestone quarry in the Red Forest, although the stench of otyughs dissuaded them from exploring it, and had a short encounter with a mischeivous pseudodragon in the Great Cedar Forest. They managed to reach town by the 8th. The Doors to the North: Eleint 9th-12th On the morning of the 9th of Eleint, Rinzler, Ruthea, Kat and Enrique had a slight disagreement regarding where to travel to the next day. Rinzler and Ruthea wanted to continue heading to the Rheic Sea, but Ned informed them that there were no suitable boats in Willowdale and that they would have to wait for someone in town to build them one. Enrique wanted to further investigate the matter surrounding The Necromancer and his Bone Ziggurat, but the other Pathfinders turned down this dangerous idea. Eventually, they settled on the idea of continuing to open the Doors to the North. With that, they set out to the Great Cedar Forest. The day and evening was spent in uneventful travel; the night watch passed quietly, save for the shouting match heard between the Firewalker Tribe and another goblin gang. The Pathfinders awoke early on the 10th and continued on their way to the Doors, running into a small pack of Skull-Taker goblins on the way that they quickly frightened off with the help of Enrique's gun. They entered the elvish ruins and took the stairs down, where they found the elemental-summoning tiles still deactivated and the series of doors that they had already dealt with still open. They found the door that had foiled them last time open as well, leading into a small anti-chamber. The room was empty save for a large wooden door on the far side, a strange machine that seemed to be built into the doorway, and a corpse, long dead, who appeared to have met his end fiddling with the mechanical device. After investigating the device, which looked like it had something to do with closing the doors but had rusted and crumbled to uselessness over time, they turned their attention to the door. It was large, wooden, and had the appearance of halfling design; when Kat cast her Open spell on it, words in the halfling language appeared, asking a riddle. When the question was correctly answered, an enchantment was removed from the door, allowing them to more easily pick the lock, although they still had to dodge a poison dart trap that had been built in. Behind the first door was a second, this one granite and fashioned in the custom of gnomes. Similar to the first door, the Open spell triggered the appearance of a riddle, the answer to which disarmed some of the fortifications, which in this case included a Burning Hands trap and an Arcane Lock enchantment. Once the traps were avoided, the lock could be picked and the Pathfinders could carry on. The first six doors were opened without too much trouble, but each one had an increasingly difficult riddle, more deadly traps, and a trickier lock. The third door was iron, of human design, the fourth was wood, huge, and of elven make, the fifth was a huge dwarven door made of stone, and the sixth was a huge, shining iron door bearing the marks of humanity. Behind the sixth door was a larger room, with an almost perfectly flat adamantine panel on the far side. Without thought, Rinzler put his hand on it, and almost immediately felt the life drain from him. The panel was indeed the seventh door, however, as a riddle in the draconic language appeared. Even with the riddle answered though , the door was not easy to open. Its locking device was invisible and incredibly complicated, even before the Arcane Lock helped befuddle any would-be lock picker. No amount of explosive force could damage the door in any way, and even Ruthea's most concerted effort couldn't break the lock. Frustrated, but not to be beaten, the Pathfinders retreated back to town, an idea brewing in their heads. They made it most of the way back to Willowdale, spending the night in the Barrow Motel. By the morning of the 11th, the Pathfinders made it back to town in order to make some purchases. Rinzler sought assistance from the Reverend Mother to heal the residual effects that the door's trap had left on him, and Kat purchased from Valconey a wand of Dispel Magic. With the wand in hand, the group hurried back to the Doors. Without stopping for the night, the group managed to make it back to the Doors early on the 12th. Rushing back to the adamantine door, they used the wand to attempt to dispel the life draining trap; three charges of the wand were drained before finally breaking through. With the spell gone, they used the power of the Boots of the Grand Entrance to dispel the Arcane Lock; again, three charges were required. The enchantments now broken, the Pathfinders pooled all of their abilities to break the final lock and open the door. When the door slid open, the Pathfinders were met with an incredible room, its walls covered in images that seemed to flicker and move. In the center was a man, or at least an image of one, who welcomed them and explained that they now stood in a vault, designed to protect the knowledge of history should the then-current war destroy civilization. The doors were designed to test magical and mundane skill, in addition to knowledge of civilized thought and language; since the trials were passed, then they were worthy of appreciating and recieving the treasures that had been stored here. When the message finished, the image disappeared and the Pathfinders could explore the rest of the treasures of the vault, including two masterful paintings, a golden harp, an illuminated manuscript of the history of Laurasia pre-dating the Apocalypse, a map of the world and a chest filled with stamped antique gold and silver coins. In addition, they found a large crystal, which the adventurers found that they could insert their hands into, letting them pull out a single item of their chosing. Satisfied with their find, whether for its academic or material value, the Pathfinders returned to Willowdale. Cleansing the Church: Eleint ??-?? A group of Pathfinders including Kat, Jord, Enrique, Ruthea and Gorgoroth managed to make their way to the very depths of the catacombs under the Church of St. Christopher. They killed the New Abbot, effectively ending the fifty-year corruption. Deepen Dale: Eleint ??-?? A group including Alejandra, Enrique, Dr. Haiduc, Gorgoroth and Jura visited the newly opened Doors to the North, observed the slow healing beginning in the Red Forest, and then moved north to explore Deepen Dale , discovering on the way the Shrine to Coyote. (est. 3 days) Before leaving on this expedition, Alejandra performed the final stanza of the Litany of the Dead, unlocking the scroll's full potential. At the Doors to the North, Alejandra retrieved the Plate Armor of the Deep, which she then commissioned Dr. Haiduc to enhance. Jura took a Staff of Healing, and Dr. Haiduc took a Ring of Major Acid Resist. A vision in the night revealed an elven tomb tomb to the group, marked with a statue and containing several items. On entering the Red Forest the group encountered a chuul. Confronted with Alejandra enlarged by Dr. Haiduc, and Jura in the form of a Megaraptor, the chuul opted to sieze Gorgoroth in its maw. Dr. Haiduc then magically commanded the creature to flee. It obeyed, still carrying the paralyzed Gorgoroth, but was caught by Jura before it could escape with its captive. The Pathfinders then proceeded to Limnol Lake. Alejandra was eager to test her new armour, so the party stopped there and several members went for a swim. They encountered a choker searching the bottom of the lake for shellfish. The creature was captured and brought to the surface for interrogation regadring the nearby quarry, but little useful information was obtained from the barely intelligent creature, and it was released. The party then turned north. Entering the Open Steppe, they discovered a structure that Dr. Haiduc identified as a Shrine to Coyote. However, the Pathfinders found they were unable to budge the heavy stone door into the shrine. Jura eventually decided to try passing through the stone in the form of an earth elemental. On reaching the other side, she realized that the "door" was in fact a facade carved into solid stone. She easily opened the real door on the other side of the shrine and let the rest of the group in. Dr. Haiduc then paid tribute to his trickster patron in an odd ceremony involving a rubber chicken. The Pathfinders passed through the Drunken Frith, exploring the Copper Clearings and encountering one morning an attacking roc, which Jura repelled with an ice storm spell before it reached the group. The Pathfinders entered Deepen Dale, where Alejandra encountered snow for the first time. Though most of the Pathfinders had prepared cold weather clothing, Dr. Haiduc instead grew a thick coat of hair. Within Deepen Dale the Pathfinders observed the Tarn and a Druid Circle. They also discovered Hulstrom's grave and the note from Alhannan there. A dive into the icy lake revealed a hydra skeleton there - when a tooth was brought to the surface, it promptly disintegrated. As the Deepen Dale druid circle was the first such circle encountered by the Pathfinders outside Ravenswood, they opted to test the travelling power of the circle by returning to the Ravenswood Circle. There, the Pathfinders spoke with Terminus, who informed them that due to the encounter with the roc, Jura was now considered to be of "great virility" and had the right to claim a wife according to northern traditions. When Enrique suggested that Alejandra be Jura's wife, Alejandra replied that her husband might object to that. At some point in the conversation, Dr. Haiduc realized that he was still covered in his hair coat. Though the Arch-Druid appeared absent, Alejandra posed a riddle to the air, hoping he might hear it anyway. The Pathfinders opted at this point to return to Willowdale and return to Deepen Dale later to continue exploration. The Elusive Sosostriss: Eleint ??-?? After an unexpected party, a group of Pathfinders including Kat, Alejandra, Ruthea and Jura visited Sosostriss' Tower with the intent of finally finding the elusive sorceress. (2-3 days) Before leaving to find Sosostriss, the Pathfinders searched Willowdale find Brother Harold's sister, so that Kat could return Brother Harold's ring to her. They learned that she was dead and had several living relatives who were currently engaged in an inheritance feud. The party arrived at the house of Brother Harold's nephew, only to find that the man's funeral was in progress. They spoke with the man's son, Brother Harold's great-nephew, and offered to give him the ring on the condition that he try to resolve matters with his aunt, Brother Harold's niece. In gratitude to the Pathfinders, he offered to name his first-born daugher after Alejandra, wrote poems about Kat, Sparkle Pony, and Ru, and set Jura up on an ill-fated blind date. The Pathfinders accepted his invitation to attend the funeral, and as the night progressed became quite drunk, prompting Alejandra and Ru to have an extended conversation. When Jura overslept the next morning, Zuni became worried and somehow managed to get up the stairs to the guest bedrooms to awaken everyone. Recovered from the festivities, the group headed for Sosostriss' tower. Alejandra stopped briefly at a bookstore in order to purchase a romance novel, as she had previously observed a large collection of these in Sosostriss' library. On their way, the group was chased through the Great Cedar Forest by Chickcharney. Upon opening Sosostriss' door, the group triggered a new trap which summoned a swarm of angry bees before them. The Pathfinders sought refuge in the moat, but not before Kat was stung several times, leading her to discover her allergy to bees. The group entered and made their way past the guest quarters and through the final two floors, meeting little difficulty beyond the front door. These rooms contained Sosostriss' personal quarters - a lab, recreational rooms, and a furnished but unused nursery. One of these rooms notably contained a salamander plant, and another an angry piano which the Pathfinders quickly fled from. The rooms on the very top floor were hidden behind secret doors. Eventually the Pathfinders found Sosostriss asleep in bed. Since it was three bells in the afternoon, the group assumed that she was taking a short midday nap and decided to wait for her to awake. However, as Sosostriss' "nap" stretched on for hours, the Pathfinders dispersed somewhat. Alejandra remained meditating directly in front of the bedroom door. This caused quite a shock to Sosostriss when she finally opened her bedroom door, and the sorceress attacked Alejandra on sight with a Ray of Enfeeblement. The other Pathfinders immediately rushed to the scene. Quick diplomacy spear-headed by Kat convinced Sosostriss that the Pathfinders weren't there to harm her or her property. Though Sosostriss was displeased at the intrusion, she agreed to continue the discussion downstairs. In the ensuing discussion, the topic of The Necromancer came up. Sosostriss defended him, saying that "The Elder Wizard" was a wizard of great renown, well known to her and her fellow reclusive mages Rathbone the Red and Baron Firth. She accused the Pathfinders of prejudice against the discipline of Necromancy. It was eventually decided to take Sosostriss' portal to the Bone Ziggurat in order to resolve the issue. The room that they entered from the portal was roughly the size of that the Pathfinders had entered previously, but was made of clean marble. This initially confused the Pathfinders. However, Alejandra was immediately able to sense the evil auras of the Disciples of the Necromancer when they entered: the First a humanoid figure in white robes with its eyes and mouth stitched shut, the Second in a funeral mask and the Third with gemstone eyes. The First engaged the Pathfinders and Sosostriss in conversation, and Kat asked if the Necromancer could come to a magical cake-baking competition in Willowdale. The Third stared intently at Alejandra; she recognized him as the lich the party fought at Ur-Nahash and in reference to this suggested that he looked more like the "first" to her. The tone of the conversation slowly grew more sinister, and even Sosostriss became unsettled. Finally, the illusion over the room began to wear off, revealing the blood-soaked bone room the Pathfinders had seen before. At this point the Disciples departed and an image of the Necromancer himself materialized, coming out of the floor as a black armoured behemoth with prismatic eyes that ensorceled the group. Only a feat of will from Alejandra and a moment of quick thinking from Sosostriss allowed them to escape back out the portal. Having seen the Necromancer as he was, Sosostriss was easily convinced to move to Willowdale for her own safety. In her frenzied packing, Sosostriss let slip that she was barren and that the Necromancer had promised to help her bear a child, and she apologized to the group for being blind to his true nature. Upon getting back to Willowdale, the group immediately visted Valconey. He readily invited Sosostriss to take up residence in his tower, and after she left the room to unpack he admitted to the Pathfinders his regret of his past bullying of Sosostriss when they were in school together. As a reward for saving the reclusive necromancer, Valconey gave the group his Aqua Vitae potion. Sosostriss revealed Baron Firth's collection of enhancement medications, which she had taken as a prank. She gave them to the Pathfinders, saying that as the alchemist was dead the Pathfinders might as well make use of his invention. Given the mood, Alejandra decided against giving Sosostriss the romance novel at this time.